GX Tax Partners

Guide

Limited Company Tax: A Guide for Owner-Managed Businesses

If you run a limited company, your tax bill is shaped by a dozen moving parts: the rate your profits are charged at, the relief you get on what you invest, how you recover VAT, and what happens when you eventually sell. This guide gathers our plain-English explainers on each, written for owner-managers rather than tax specialists and kept current as the rules change.

Why owner-managed companies overpay

Most small companies are well served on compliance and under-served on strategy. The accounts get filed correctly, but the decisions that actually move the tax bill — when to invest, how to structure a purchase, whether a relief applies — are made in the months in between, when nobody is looking. The articles below are built around those decisions, not the year-end scramble.

What this guide covers

Corporation tax and marginal relief, the allowances on plant, equipment and research, the VAT schemes that quietly leak money, the cost of taking people on, and the reliefs available when you come to sell. Each links to a focused explainer with the current figures and a worked example.

Articles in this guide

Tax Strategy · 7 min read
The Marginal Relief Trap: Why Your Corporation Tax Bill Might Be Wrong

Since 1 April 2023 UK corporation tax has run on a two-rate system bridged by marginal relief.

Read the full article →
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
Full Expensing and UK Capital Allowances: A 2026 Guide for Owner-Managed Companies

Full expensing lets companies deduct the full cost of qualifying new plant and machinery from taxable profits in the year of purchase, and it is now a…

Read the full article →
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
UK R&D Tax Relief Under the Merged Scheme: What the 20% Credit and ERIS Are Actually Worth

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024 the separate SME and RDEC schemes are gone, replaced by a single merged expenditure credit and a…

Read the full article →
VAT · 6 min read
The VAT Flat Rate Scheme and the Limited Cost Trader Trap

The VAT Flat Rate Scheme lets a small business pay a fixed percentage of its VAT-inclusive turnover instead of tracking input and output VAT line by line…

Read the full article →
VAT · 7 min read
Five VAT Recovery Opportunities Your Accountant Probably Missed

VAT is the tax where the most money falls through the cracks.

Read the full article →
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) Schemes: The Tax-Advantaged Route to Employee Equity

Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) options remain the most tax-efficient way for a growth-stage UK trading company to give key employees equity…

Read the full article →
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
Business Asset Disposal Relief in 2026/27: the 18% rate, the £1 million limit, and what still qualifies

Business Asset Disposal Relief still reduces the capital gains tax you pay when selling a trading business, but the rate has climbed from 10% to 14% and…

Read the full article →
Compliance · 6 min read
The New Audit Threshold: What Companies Losing Mandatory Audit Must Do Now

SI 2024/1298 raised the UK audit threshold by approximately 50%. Around 14,000 companies will lose mandatory audit.

Read the full article →
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
Employer National Insurance from April 2025: What the Rate, Threshold and Employment Allowance Changes Mean for Owner-Managed Companies

From 6 April 2025 the employer secondary Class 1 National Insurance rate rose to 15% and the point at which it begins fell to £5,000, while the Employment…

Read the full article →
Expenses · 6 min read
Your Business Travel Deductions Are Almost Certainly Wrong. Here Is Why.

HMRC allows generous deductions for business travel.

Read the full article →
Not sure which applies to you?Apply for a strategic review with the senior partner — no charge, no obligation — and we will tell you which of these actually move your position.
Apply for a Strategic Review